Hi , wickerandvine,
<If i reinstall my mail program, will my mails and other important stuff be deleted?> the short answer is no ; however the machine might not be able to locate the folder if it has been renamed or displaced . I suppose you did use finder to locate your mail folder.
Reading your posts , I am not sure if you did or did not locate your mail folder ;make every effort to locate the mail folder or try to find the "sent" folder or any mailboxes that you created in mail . Search in "everywhere" or "home" directory or if your recall any documents that where attached to your mail then make a search for them through the "finder" when you find what you are looking for the "finder" will tell you the location and the name of the mail folder if it had been renamed . I would to start with, download Onyx "a free app"and run its restore and optimise functions to see if it can help . Since you found your iphoto library it's ok to reinstall iphoto as you will be able to access your pictures .To be sure ,why not make an archive of your picture library . By the way I would reinstall disk utility since it doesn't hold any data .
Good luck
Minkata

how can i run disk utility by booting thru the installation disk without reinstalling the disk utility????? we've tried already reinstalling disk utility and email but unfortunately the same error i will receive. by the way, ny iphoto is ok now. i still got problems with mail and disk utility.

put the cd in then restart. when you hear the startup chime, hold down the C button until the OS boots. the installer will try to re-install the OS, just cancel it and choose disk utility from the menus at the top of the screen.

sounds like the library that runs mail got corrupted somehow. if you have enough room you can try to do an "archive and install" fresh installation of your system, but check the instructions on the apple website before you do this, as you could potentially lose everything on your hard drive...

So is there no other way? like can i just remove the MAIL program and reinstall it with my mails and contact list being intact? If it can be done this way, i really need to know how exactly to do it step by step with clear instructions. Forgive me guys but im very much new to MAC and i really need some guidance here. tnx a lot guys in advance, tnx for the support...

Hi ! Wickerandvine ,
You have very few options , but options none the less .
A-You want to keep your mail folders and addresses.
B-You want to restore your corrupted Mail programme.
So the way I would go about it is :
A-Locate your mail folder , if you can't find the mail folder then I would try a disk recovery software like Data Rescue II - 1.1 at http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/1133 . the demo version lets you find the files you are looking for , and is affordable if you really want to keep what you found; so you have the option to know if your mails are still in the system somewhere without spending any money. If your important data is recovered ie: your mail and you decide to purchase the recovery programme then archive them and burn them on a CD so you can re-import them later.
B-Restore your Mail Programme: As i have suggested before use Pacifist , the demo version is fully functional so I would reinstall Mail over the existing one . Mail will be installed by your machine Installer utility and create it's own folder . The installer will mention that a version of Mail exists ,follow the restore option , this way the contents of your mail folder will not be erased should they exist at this location .I mention this because , let suppose you couldn't locate your mail data with the disk recovery programme , there is still a chance that the installer can restore whatever was corrupted and your data reapear in the mail folder . In other words even if no software can recover your mail , it is still worth installing Mail over the existing one using pacifist .Don't forget that pacifist simply let you browse the install disks so you can perform a partial install of corrupted apps instead of a full install ,pacifist only use the install disks tools available .
The philosophy behind this is <first do no harm>
C-The last and final option is a clean reinstall .
Before this radical step run a disk recovery software .Decide if you will keep or if it worth keeping the data ,
Transfer the data you wish to keep on disks or external media.
Reinstall . Import your CD saved data .
Theses are your options , at least the ones I could think of.
Hope you will find this helpful
minkata